The following are reader's opinions of the Millenium Falcon made by Fine Molds.

Reviewer

Harald Rotter

Date Reviewed

Jan 12, 2006

Overall Rating

Well worth getting.

Comments

The moment I read about the new MF kit on the website of Hobby Link Japan, I knew I had to pre-order one, and be it only for the small discount. Which, due to the high price of the kit, turned into a not insubstantial saving. I am still trying to figure out whether that is a good thing (because of the ¬s saved) or a bad thing (because it means the kit costs a lot).

Anyway, this kit is damned expensive, so it better be damned good to justify that price.
In a nutshell, it is.

It starts with packing. The kit comes in 4 cardboard boxes inside the big box and with 2 high-gloss reference sheets. The decal reference sheet consists of 1/72 scale photos modellers would have killed for not too long ago. In short, everything is stacked away very neatly.

The parts count is simply amazing, and the instructions are very nice. Clear drawings in a stapled booklet, and they even thought of naming the colours the first time they are mentioned instead of just giving numbers. Good thinking. Instructions are mostly in Japanese, but with enough English to find your way around easily.

The decal sheet consists of nice cockpit instruments for the back wall, side walls and front console, plus every single red or yellow or grey rectangle or trapeze on the ship's hull. Theoretically, you spray it off-white, slam on the decals, and hey presto! instant Falcon ;-)

So far, I have assembled the cockpit and test-fitted the hull halves and gun bays (which come complete with seat and controls). This is what I have found so far:

Fit is very good, and the parts breakdown is intelligent for minimum seam visibility. I have not broken out the filler yet, and sanding has been only minimal. The kit looks as if this might remain so.

Detail is sharp and 3-D, with loads of detail parts being glued onto the hull instead of being molded into it, which I am sure will look great. Cockpit & gun bay detail reminds me of typical Hasegawa aircraft kits: what is there is sharply molded and fits well, but there could be more of it.

The offer of figures is generous (seated: Luke, Han, Chewie, Leia, C3PO, Obi-wan; standing: Luke, Han, Leia, 2 Stormtroopers). The figures themselves are good enough to be easily recognised, but somewhat soft in detail, much like the other figures included in Fine Molds kits.

There is ample and credible engine detail, 78 nozzles in groups of 6 plus a grid covering the assembly. Finally, a Falcon engine that looks great without lighting... in fact lighting might prove a bit difficult.

Cockpit framing is either empty frames (like the studio model) or transparent plastic. The frames are thin and look good, and the glass is the best I have ever seen in a plastic model (including vacforms), very thin and almost distortion-free.

This kit easily gets 5 stars from me, and I am looking forward to long evenings of trouble-free assembly.